 This end of year I put to good use my new studio and created one more triptych on bike rides, the last one of the year: My Landmark Bike Ride. Those three places have been very important during my life in the Bronx and have been turning points in my life. I am not usually interested in painting buildings, but those three are so special I wanted to try. I wanted to take you on my favorite bike ride, from Yankee Stadium, stopping by the NYC Botanical Gardens and finishing at Poe Park, where the Poe Cottage hosts the cutest museum in town. I hope this new year treats us a little better and that everyone is safe and healthy during the next 365 days, at least! I leave you a timelapse from the paintings. Hugs and Love, Laura
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Hello all. I finally finished my 100 drawings a day, I even made 102 without realizing. I created a short video to show you all the quick sketches together. It has been an interesting project, when during the 3 to 4 minutes that it took me to draw each plant I wasn't thinking of anything, I was just letting the brush flow and create those pseudo plants. For me it is kind of a meditation moment when I only focus on the ink flowing and mixing with the water. The 5 sketchbooks will be part of a show at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning called: Process → Project: What Comes Out of Our Sketchbooks The exhibition will have a wide variety of artists and will be on view from February 4 to March 20, 2021. I will be posting more information when I have it. So excited for this opportunity! JUSTICE Curated by Juanita Lanzo Exhibition on view from October 26 through December 12, 2020 Bronx River Art Center (BRAC), is pleased to announce this Fall’s exhibition JUSTICE in which four artists will activate the windows and gallery space at BRAC to create artworks that document, illustrate, converse and capture our shared humanity, pain, and joy, daily life struggles, and resilience. The works in the exhibition will be developed by ongoing public interactions by the artists in everyday or regular encounters with Bronx residents, visitors, and students at BRAC. Participating artists Laura Alvarez, Rejin Leys, Tijay Mohammed, and Tammy Wofsey will create work in the space that will be installed on the windows and other spaces at BRAC, in a wide array of media (from paintings, drawings, and mixed-media installations that will be seen by West Farm Square/East Tremont Ave area residents and beyond). JUSTICE will be a work in progress exhibition that takes place while NYS has been in lockdown, due to COVID-19, and has partially re-opened for families to work, go to school, and live in socially distanced terms, until further notice. The artists will present work that creates a dialogue around the racial and social disparities that were exacerbated by the Pandemic, resulting in the loss of thousands of Black, Brown, Asian and Indigenous lives, the disruption or total lack of education and social services to working-class and poor families, food insecurity and urban violence and police brutality. I was approached to volunteer for a project I thought it was genius, pair artists with expecting mothers to paint their bellies with the vord VOTE. They asked every mother why they decided to do this in the times we are living, and all of them coincide that they are doing it for the future of their children. Voting is your civil duty and your right. So many people died so we can vote, think about that. Vote for the ones that can't, the ones that are in prison, the ones at the hospital and can't go. Use your right. Bump the Vote This summer has been pretty interesting due to the pandemic. All the staple events have gone virtual or have been cancelled. This year it was the 10th anniversary of the New Village Music Festival and the organizers decided to do something small with a few artists and one band. I was happy to come out and see people I haven't seen in a while. Painting outdoors is always plus! I decided I was going to create something for a friend that is having her second girl. I always like to gift Art, I try to think of something they will be able to use now but that it will last a little longer that only when they are babies. I created this two paintings so they realize how amazing they are and that Black Girls are MAGIC! I've always liked plants, I work for NYC Parks and still I am a terrible plant care taker. I am never sure if what I am doing is good or not, and I end up doing something wrong (or not doing anything at all) and they end up dying. I decided to start doing one drawing a day (quick drawing) with ink, I make up plants and flowers, record them on video (and post on Tik Tok) and take a picture for Instagram. I have several ideas of what to create with the plants once I am done... I will keep you posted!! Hola! I just started a Tik-Tok. I had an account for a while, but I wasn't sure what to upload. I am not much of a dancer on camera, so I decided to go with what I do best. Drawing. I have a deep love for Nature, but I have not gotten a green thumb, so I started the #greenthumbproject with the idea of drawing a (fake, invented) flower/plant a day for 100 days. I am in day 9 and you can follow the videos here TikTok
Around May there was an open call for a special show at @rockefellercenter and I decided to send a design to represent the Bronx. I took out flag and gave it a spin... They were asking about a representation of what NY is for you... I was selected from over a thousand submissions and some great artists are part of it. The flags will be up until August 16 at Rockefeller plaza. I consider The Bronx my home, and since I arrived from Spain in 2009, I've been part of this multicultural community. I got inspired by the Bronx flag, where a wreath encircles the Bronck family arms (founders of The Bronx). The shield of the family arms shows the face of the sun with rays displayed rising from the sea, signifying peace, liberty, and commerce. I transformed the rays into The BX, a familiar way Bronxites call their beloved borough. Last week through a chain of I know someone that knows someone, I got a text message if I knew anyone to paint a community fridge in The Bronx. As I am feeling better and now I can walk almost normal, I immediately volunteered. Sara and Selma have been providing free food to their community for two months already. They saw what other communities were accomplishing by having a fridge in the street, asking local businesses to donate food at the end of the day, coordinating with community gardens to get fresh produce and checking on the fridge every day a couple of times a day to make sure it is clean and working. While painting it I was impressed by the number of people that used it, to bring and to get food from it. We don't really know how people are struggling until you offer help. This is a mutual aid initiative that has been pretty successful in different parts of the city and I see it is being done in other cities. I will be hopefully painting a few more soon... This one is located at 242 Street and Broadway Ave. In the North Bronx. We had a couple of technical difficulties to paint the fridge. The first day it was so humid that the paint I brought to paint didn't dry, so I had to come back a second time. All worth!! |
I am a...Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Educator, Community Activist... ARTIST! All Images COPYRIGHT © 2008-2019, are property of Laura Alvarez Fernandez. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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